Dow Corning Corp., McLaren Bay Region and Chemical Bank beginning in 2014 will move into a now-vacant 43-acre site known as Uptown at RiversEdge alongside the Saginaw River near downtown Bay City.

Elements of the development may ring familiar for some Saginaw residents.

For one, the Bay City addition was spurred in part by the Shaheen family, noted Saginaw philanthropists who helped bolster that city’s expanding medical corridor while renovating historic treasures such as the Temple Theatre. Bay City Commissioners — that community’s equivalent of the the Saginaw City Council — in November 2011 approved the sale of the Uptown at RiversEdge property to Samuel Shaheen and his company, SSP Associates, for more than $3 million.

The hundreds of promised employees in Bay City also isn’t far from the 500 workers once estimated for an alternative energy manufacturing start-up venture that was expected to move into an abandoned auto manufacturing building in Saginaw’s northeast side. That prospective San Jose-Calif.-based employer, known as GlobalWatt, abandoned the Saginaw project in 2011 after two years of planning and promises.

“Jokingly, I would say I wish it was on our riverfront,” Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch said of the Bay City development, “but I think that it is good for the region. It’s not a zero-sum game.”

Branch said the jobs announcement “just broadens and strengthens the Shaheen portfolio and puts them in a better position to make an impact in the region.”

That, in turn, will help Saginaw, said City Manager Darnell Earley.

“Any development in the area is a positive thing for the city (of Saginaw),” Earley said.

Branch and Earley say they aren’t aware of any prospective development that rivals the jobs-based upside of the Uptown at RiversEdge announcement.

“We continue to work with Saginaw Future (Inc.) and other economic development agencies to maximize opportunities to see what’s out there,” Earley said.

“We are so excited about today's announcement in Bay City and its impact on the entire region,” LaMarr said on Tuesday. “Along with our partners at Bay Future and the city of Bay City, SFI has supported this project as a regional priority from the start.”